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The Backlash Over Apple’s Subscription Service Begins

Less than a day since Apple unveiled it’s somewhat new subscription rules and unsurprisingly there is already some backlash from publishers and suggestions of possible antitrust investigations. The most prominent content provider that has spoken out so far is Rhapsody, effectively signaling that Apple’s 30% is not economically viable for them after paying music publishers and as a result will not be implementing the new subscription service and policy.

Rhapsody’s president Jon Irwin issued a statement and amongst noting that it would be “economically untenable,” he also noted that they will be “collaborating with our market peers in determining an appropriate legal and business response to this latest development.” This certainly gives the impression of possible legal action if that avenue is open to them and interestingly enough The Wall Street Journal contacted several law professors and reported that Apple’s new policy could potentially “draw antitrust scrutiny”.

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MacStories Product Review: Saddleback Leather iPad Case

The iPad case market is full of cheap faux leather folio stands, plastic shells, and silicone grips that don’t quite do the beauty of the iPad justice. Face it: you want to spend your money on a case that’s going to last you a lifetime whether or not your iPad itself is going to last that long. You want a case that’s strong, hardy, and reflects the personality of its proud owner. If you’ve never heard of American bred Saddleback Leather, then you wouldn’t know about their range of real leather laptop bags, backpacks, and iPad cases. It’s probably the finest case I’ve handled to date, and I think you’ll fall in love with it too after reading this review.

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Apple Releases iWeb 3.0.3 Update

Still using iWeb? Even if it doesn’t come with extra HTML5 love or Apple’s most beautiful animations and UI touches? You’re not alone. Because apparently, someone at Cupertino is still taking care of the app, which got updated earlier today to version 3.0.3.

The update, available here or in Software Update, brings “bug fixes and improvements” for the iSight movie widget, FTP publishing and OS X.

If you’re looking for an alternative to iWeb, we recommend RapidWeaver 5 from Realmac Software. But if you’re one of those hardcore iWeb users – Software Update is waiting for you.

“Apple Doesn’t Understand The Internet”→

“Apple Doesn’t Understand The Internet”

Nadav Savio on the differences between Google and Apple:

It’s been said that Google doesn’t get ‘social’ and, though I think that is vastly overstated, there is truth there. Similarly, I’d say that Apple doesn’t understand the internet. Well I have a simple theory about it. There’s a cliché that everyone’s greatest strength is also their greatest weakness, and I believe that applies as well to organizations as to people.

Take Apple. They make amazing, holistic products and services and one of their primary tools is control. Fanatical, centralized control. Control over the design, over the hardware, over the experience. And that’s exactly the opposite of the internet, which is about decentralization and messy, unfiltered chaos.

It sounds good in theory, but the more I think about it, the more I don’t get the connection between the Internet and Apple as a company. Apple is not a web company. They make hardware and the software that runs on it. They make money out of hardware that, yes, is connected to the Internet. But the Internet as a service, not as a “population”. So where’s the line between “Apple doesn’t understand” and “unfiltered chaos”?

Maybe Apple doesn’t understand the people on the Internet, or they simply don’t care enough.

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PwnageTool Updated for 4.2.1 Untethered Jailbreak, Includes iBooks Fix

Jailbreak app PwnageTool was updated a few minutes ago to include untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1 and clear the iBooks incompatibilities found in version 1.2.1 of the ebook reading app. The Dev Team explains:

PwnageTool also includes two very recent improvements to the 4.2.1 JB:  iBooks was just fixed by @comex and @pushfix last night so that it works as intended on DRMed books, and the wifi problem on AppleTV 2G was fixed by @nitotv, @DHowett, and @saurik.  Both of these fixes will also be available in upcoming Cydia package updates, so if you’re already jailbroken you can wait for those updates rather than restore and jailbreak again.

PwnageTool 4.2 can jailbreak the following devices:

  • iPhone3G
  • iPhone3GS
  • iPhone4
  • iPhone4 - Verizon
  • iPod touch 3G
  • iPod touch 4G
  • iPad
  • AppleTV 2G

The app is available for download on the Dev Team’s blog.

Midnight Inbox Touch - Get Things Done. Beautifully.

Today Midnight Beep Softworks released a major update to Midnight Inbox™ Touch, a GTD app for iPad. Midnight Inbox™ Touch is a professional-grade GTD productivity app and it’s now $9.99, compared to Thing’s $19.99 and OmniFocus ($39.99). The total system for an iPhone, iPad, and a Mac is only $35. There’s even a free version for Mac, Inbox Classic, if you want to save a few bucks and use an older version. Read more

iPad Magazines With Subscriptions Start Showing Up in the App Store

Well, look at that. Apple announced App Store subscriptions earlier today and, contrary to recent speculation, iPad magazines using the new billing system are already showing up in the App Store, before the public release of iOS 4.3. As noted by WSJ and AdAge, Elle and Popular Science are the first apps to come with the new Apple subscriptions, which rely on weekly / monthly / yearly payments and give customers the possibility to decide whether a publisher may access personal information like email and ZIP code or not. Read more

Camera+ 2.1 Now Available: Faster, UI Refinements, Improved Effects

MacStories staff favorite Camera+ by taptaptap was updated a few minutes ago to include several interface refinements and optimizations to make the app faster, more stable and responsive overall. Since the release of the much anticipated version 2.0 (which marked the comeback of Camera+ in the iOS App Store), the developers have focused on improving the animations of the app when switching between the camera and the Lightbox, as well as providing a more intuitive UI design that now makes it easier to always jump back to the camera no matter where you are. Put simply, there are many camera shortcuts now. What I really appreciate though, performance improvements aside, is the possibility to automatically save pictures to the Camera Roll as they’re taken.

You can now get info on photos in the Lightbox without zooming (it was quite annoying before), set more sharing options. Taptaptap also improved the look of many effects, like Pinhole and Vintage Borders. After a first test (performed on the iOS 4.3 beta), this looks like a really solid update that builds upon the features introduced in Camera+ 2.0.

Camera+ is available at $0.99 in the App Store. Full 2.1 changelog below. Read more